Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Technology doesn't break

I was quite pissed when I read in the news that the CEO pushed the blame to technology and that technology breaks when the service provided by the company screwed up.

Seriously, machines are dumb. The reason why it can do wonders is because people coded the rules in an application to fulfil certain tasks. Why machines are so good at it is because once you tell them the rules, they will do it forever and ever, without missing a step. That's the beauty of applications and that's why information technology has been known to improve productivity.

What happens when the application screws up? There will only be 2 guilty parties. They are:

the users who gave the requirements and tested the system

the programmers who coded the application

Yes, I said 2. When an application is ready to be used in the real business environment (a.k.a production environment), it's a joint responsibility between the programmers who did up the application, and the users who gave the requirements and tested it. The reason is simply because the programmers will never know how you conduct your business. You will have to convey that to the programmers and ensure that they understand what needs to be done. That can be done through a variety of tools such as use case diagrams, swim lanes, etc.

If the application fails, it's no use pushing the blame to the machine (or server). It's a dumb machine. It's always the people that causes the problem. That's why I'm so pissed when the CEO blame it on technology. Technology is never the problem. It's the people who uses them.